st

21 Century
Literature
from the
Philippines
and the
Hazel Angelyn E. Tesoro
World
Teacher III, Baras SHS
 Introduction: Reimagining
the Myth and Memory of Our
Collective Identity

21st Century Literature from the

Philippines and the World
Philippine Literature

- tales, stories, poems, and other forms of writing that originated in

the Philippines
- learned in school textbooks
- reimagined by communities
- meant to be passed from one person to another
- like rumors, stories evolve, and, in time, details change until an
entirely different variant of the story emerges
- there is no claim of sole ownership, for each story is partly owned
by its storyteller and its receiver
Over the years, stories…

- have been inadvertently overlooked

- penchant for modernization
- inaccessibility of some of these narratives
- have died
- with a storyteller unwilling or too old and forgetful
to share it
- been relegated to the library archives
Gradual Death of Philippine
Literature
The gradual death of Philippine literature is
unfortunate since folklore is the soul of the
common people of long ago who were reared
not in classrooms but in the fields and forests of
their surroundings. They learned not through
books and writing but through the wisdom of
hard labor and discovery of the universe around
them.
Early Forms of Philippine
Literature
- came about even before the Spaniards and
the Americans occupied the country
- Tribes came from China, Australia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand—the first
human groups, who lived in caves, like those in
Tabon on the island of Palawan, brought their
oral stories, poems, songs, and prayers.
Animistic Legends

- involve female protagonists

- were later retold with names that were not indigenous to the
Filipino--names associated with the Spanish Catholics, who
christened Filipinos with biblical names
- Mariang Makiling, Mariang Sinukuan, Maria Cacao, Mariang Isda,
Mariang Alimango, and so on
- are all named after a Jewish woman named Marian or Mary, the
supreme female icon of the Church of Rome.
- This ideology was permanently sealed into the Filipino psyche by
the Spaniards and their devotion to the Virgin Mother of God.
Ancestor Worship

- Filipinos consider the dead a part of their lives, either as

guides or counsel to the living or as protectors from
malignant elements or forces.
- The presence of creatures like the aswang, kapre, tikbalang,
lambana, and anito or humans endowed with preternatural
powers like the manggagaway, the babaylan, and the
mangkukulam provides a valid reason for their existence in
the Filipino imagination. They keep the actions of people in
check, and transgressors of laws, both natural and spiritual,
are often killed by these creatures or turned into one of
them.
Lower Mythology

- is rich in characters that have both fascinated and

frightened generations of Filipinos through the centuries
- Its presence and impact on the Filipino is so strong that
many believe and profess to have seen or interacted
with creatures in lower mythology.
- The rise of the term “urban legends” in the Filipino
context may refer to the stories of a singular or
collective contact with a creature of lower mythology.
Elemental Beings in Lower
Mythology
- duwende (dwarf)
- sirena (mermaid, whose lower body is that of a fish,
often seen as enchanting fishermen)
- siyokoy (merman, whose head is that of a fish and
the rest resembling a human’s but covered with
scales)
- kapre (an ash-covered giant who smokes a cigar
and dwells on tops of trees)
Elemental Beings in Lower
Mythology
- tiyanak (an imp that disguises itself as an infant in swaddling
clothes)
- tikbalang (a centaurlike creature capable of malignant
behavior)
- aswang (ghouls or demonic creatures that assume the
shape of animals and attack people for their heart, liver, or
innards)
- manananggal (a winged creature, often with a human form
during daytime, who splits her body into two, with the lower
limbs left behind in a secret place)
Paranormal Beings in Lower
Mythology
- mangkukulam (sorcerer)
- mambabarang (shaman)
- can be classified as humans who learn and use magic
in the daily course of their lives and are often essential
members of the community who cure the sick or drive
away bad spirits or elementals from an injured or
possessed person
Dark Magic

- believed to have been practiced by some Filipinos

- sometimes involves accepting payment to curse, hex, or possess a
potential victim through their client’s access to the victim’s
photographs, piece of clothing, or even a strand of hair
- albularyo or herbolario (literally, an “herb doctor”)
- does not have special powers but uses a variety of means to
heal, including using local indigenous medicine combined with
prayer or incantations and sometimes a dance or a ritualistic
sapi (possession) by divine beings like the Santo Niño or
duwende
Ghosts/Phantoms

- white lady dressed in diaphanous white fabric

who unwittingly scares victims riding cars in
suspected haunted areas
- other variants include: black lady and red lady
- Western-inspired creatures
- bampira (vampire)
- pugot (headless zombie)
Conclusion

The stories that will be presented in this subject, though retold in

various ways, will become familiar to us in more ways than we
can imagine. Our own renditions will give us the chance to
learn of the power of these tales and share them with a new
generation of readers. These stories will speak with the same
impact they did hundreds or thousands of years ago. While the
world continually searches for the truth in life, this subject is
journey to a place where, once upon a time, the mysterious,
the magical, and the mythical was something we deeply
believed in. It defined our horizons and shaped the memories
of the Filipino people as a culture, as a race, and as a nation.